Re: FreeType and patents [Re: further notes on using Pango]

From: Leonard Rosenthol (leonardr@lazerware.com)
Date: Fri Apr 26 2002 - 11:03:14 EDT

  • Next message: Leonard Rosenthol: "Re: FreeType and patents [Re: further notes on using Pango]"

    At 2:55 PM +0100 4/26/02, Tomas Frydrych wrote:
    > > Where does Apple hold these patents?
    >From the docs that accompany the latest stable release, I
    >understand USA and Japan, but that might not be accurate -- the
    >FreeType document is not certain about this and it is dated 1999.

            Here is a VERY recent message from David Turner (FreeType
    lead) about the TrueType patents and Apple...

    At 2:15 PM +0200 4/15/02, David Turner wrote:
    >Tony Mobily a écrit :
    >>
    >> Hi David,
    >>
    > > did you check when the patents:
    >>
    >> Patent #1 : US5155805: Method and apparatus for moving control points in
    >> displaying digital typeface on raster output devices
    >>
    >> Filed on May, 8 1989
    >>
    >> Patent #2 : US5159668: Method and apparatus for manipulating outlines in
    >> improving digital typeface on raster output devices
    >>
    >> Filed on May, 8 1989 too. Actually, the two patents were filed and granted
    >> concurrently.
    >>
    >> Patent #3 : US5325479: Method and apparatus for moving control points in
    >> displaying digital typeface on raster output devices
    >>
    >> Filed on May 28, 1992
    >>
    >> ...will expire?
    >> It's going to be 10 years soon, and...
    >>
    >
    >Add 20 years to the filing date. This means that patents #1 and #2 will
    >expire on May, 8, 2009 (in about 7 years from today)
    >
    >I ahve finely analyzed the patent and I'd like to remark the following:
    >
    > Patent #1 protects the _exact_ computation performed by a MIRP instruction.
    > (basically a dot-product in 2D space, yekk..)
    >
    > Patent #3 protects _approximations_ of this computation, since these might
    > generate an outline that is slightly different, but still produce correct
    > bitmaps !! FreeType doesn't infringe on it, by the way..
    >
    >Seems Apple really wanted to "lock" the use of TrueType :-)
    >
    >
    >Cheers,
    >
    >- David Turner 

    -- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leonard Rosenthol                            <mailto:leonardr@lazerware.com>
                      			     <http://www.lazerware.com>

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